Cosmetic stick container



Nov, 21, 1961 R. G. BAU

cosMEzTIc STICK CONTAINER Filed Sept. 2, 1958 1N VEN TOR.

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ak: .f5 44] A TTORNEK 3,009,568 Patented Nov. 21, 1961 3,009,568 CGSMETIC' STICK CONTAINER Robert Gordon Bau, 3701 Eureka Drive, Studio City, Calif. Filed Sept. 2, 1958, Ser. No. 758,198 14 Claims. (Cl. 206S6) This invention relates to a cosmetic stick container, and more particularly to a lipstick storage container from which the lipstick can be easily and readily removed, without handling the lipstick or other cosmetic stick.

The usual lipstick container includes a casing having a mechanism for reciprocating the lipstick to expose or conceal the lip-stick, a lipstick rell being pro-vided in another container, referred to as a storage container.

An object of the present invention is to provide a positive control mechanism for transferring the reiill to the lipstick container. A further object of the present invention is to employ the casing of the first mentioned lipstick container as a mechanism for controlling the transfer of a lipstick rell into and from a storage container, without the necessity of touching or handling the lipstick.

In co-pending application Serial No. 741,635, tiled J une 12, 1958, for A Lipstick Container, I have described and claimed means for fastening a lipstick to its reciprocating mechanism or unfastening it therefrom without the necessity of touching or handling the lipstick, together with means in the form of port controlled suction chamber for transferring a reiill from a storage chamber to the lipstick container. If the operator should inadvertently remove the finger from the port or bleed hole before the storage container is itted 'to the lipstick container, the lipstick would fall and probably be damaged, or cause an unwanted color mark. The inadvertent dropping of a lipstick from the storage container is avoided according to the present invention which provides mechanism for holding the lipstick in the storage container until it is properly fitted to the lipstick container.

While the present application discloses the magnetic means to FIGS. 1 to 3 of S.N. 741,635 for releasably holding the lipstick itself to the reciprocating mechanism, various other types of releasable holding means such as shown in FIGS. 7 to 11 of that patent application may be employed.

For further details of the invention, reference may be made to the drawings wherein:

FIG. l is a vertical cross-sectional view of the lipstick container covered by Serial No. 741,635, for use with the refill container of the present invention, with parts shown in elevation;

FIG. 2 is a vertical cross-sectional View, as taken substantially along a line 22 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 isa vertical cross-sectional view, similar to FIG. 2, showing a plunger means thereof in another position;

FIG. 4 is a vertical cross-sectional View of a refill container according to the pres-ent invention;

FIG. 5 is a vertical cross-sectional View illustrating the transfer of a lipstick refill from a storage container of the present invention to the lipstick container;

FIG. 6 is ya perspective view o-f the spring of FIGS. 4 and 5. t Y

Referring to the drawings, and particularly to FIGS. 1-3, there is shown, by way of illustration, `a lipstick container, generally designated by the numeral 10, having a substantially cylind-rical casing 11, adapted to receive therein a lipstick, generally designated by the numeral 12, for axial reciprocal movement therein, a slide means 1'3 within the casing 11 for supporting the lipstick reiill 12 within the casing 11, and cam means 14 rotatably mounted on the casing 11 for imparting an axial movement to the slide means 13. t

The casing 11 includes an upper por-tion 16 of Itubular construction having an open top lipstick refill 12, and a longitudinal slot 18 communicating with the open top, and an enlarged lower portion 19 which forms a handle. The enlarged portion 19 is stepped to form an upper annular shoulder 21 and a lower annular shoulder 22 which is slightly greater in diameter than the shoulder 21. A bottom wall 23 of the handle portion 19 is preferably concave in conliguration to facilitate insertion of a linger, for a purpose which will be hereinafter described, and includes a centrally located aperture 24.

The slide means 13 is cup shaped in configuration, and comprises an annular wall 26 whose outer diameter forms a sliding lit with the inner diameter of the upper portion 16 of the casing 11, a bottom wall 27, and an outwardly extending radial projection or cam follower 28 which extends through the slot 18 and into ia spiral slot 29 of 'the cam means 14, for engagement therewith. The projection 28 is lifted, within the slot `18, by the lower surface 31 of the slot 29 when the cam means 14 is rotated in one direction and lowered, within the slot 18, by the upper edge 32 of the slot 29 when the cam means is rotated in an opposite direction. A lower edge 33 of the cam means 14 rests on the shoulder 21 of the enlarged portion 19, the cam means being retained, between the shoulder 21 and an outwardly directed bead 34adjacent the open top 17 of the casing 11, by an outer sleeve 36. The cylindrical sleeve 36 is telescoped over the cam means 14 and has a lower edge 37 resting on the shoulder 21 and an upper edge 38 curved inwardly to engage the upper surface of the bead 34 of the casing portion 16.

The cam means 14 is preferably formed of a spring material whereby the cam tends to expand before the sleeve '36 is telescoped thereon thereby effecting a tight lit yof the cam means within the sleeve 36 after the sleeve 36 has been telescoped over the cam means and casing. By this construction, rotation of the sleeve 36 causes the cm means 14 to rotate therewith, and when the handle 19 is held by another hand, during such rotation, the projection 28 is caused to rise or lower within the slot 18, depending on the direction of rotation.

To enclose the open top 17 of the vcontainer 10, a cap member 39 is preferably provided having a cylindrical wall 40, a closed top 41 and an open bottom 42. The cap is adapted to be slidingly disposed over the sleeve 36 and have a snug lit with the outer surface 43 of the casing 11, between the shoulders 21 and 22, to retain the ca'p on the container, with its bottom edge 44 in abutment with lthe shoulder 22.

As will now be more apparent from the preceding description, the cam means 14 is rotatably disposed on the upper portion 16 of the casing 11 and is provided with a spiral slot 29 to engage the projection 28 of the slide means 13, which extends through the longitudinal slot 18 :of the casing, whereby rotation of the cam means relative to the casing 11 causes the projection 28 to tnavel in a linear direction within the slot 18 thus imparting an axial movement to the slide means 13.

In order to fasten the lipstick reiill 12 to the slide means 13 whereby the lipstick may be lowered to a position shown `in FIG. 2 Where the lipstick is protected within the casing during storage, and elevated outwardly of the casing 11 through the open top 17 for use in applying the lipstick to the lips of .the user, a fastening means 46 is mounted in the slide means 13 to fasten the lipstick 12 to the slide means 13. The fastening means comprises a cylindrical permanent magnet 47, such as an Alnico magnet, which is press-fitted in the upper portion of the annular wall 26, and has an upper flat surface 48 substantially ush with the upper edge 49 of the wall 26.l -The fastening means y46 magnetically holds a bottom transverse wall 51 of a cup-shaped lbase 52 of the lipstick refill 12. For this purpose, the base 52 is preferably of a 17 for receiving the ferrous composition for magnetic attraction to the magnet 47, while it is preferable to form the casing 11, slide means 13, cam means 14, and sleeve 36 of non-ferrous material, such as brass or the like, whereby only the cupshaped member 52 is attracted by the magnet 47.

In order to detach `or separate the base 52 from the magnet 47 of the fastening means 46, if it is desired to remove the lipstick 12 for replacement or storage, a plunger means 53 is provided in the slide means 13.

The plunger means 53 is adapted to reside within the slide means 13 and travel therewith as the slide means is moved axially by the cam means 14. The plunger means 53, as illustrated, is generally of a cylindrical configuration, or is optionally of a non-circular configuration, and includes a reduced upper portion 54 which extends through an axial bore 56 of the magnet 47 and is substantially flush with the upper surface 48 thereof. The plunger means 53 further includes an enlarged portion or fingerpiece 57 extending outwardly of the slide means 13 as through an axial opening 58 aligned with the bore 56. An annular shoulder 59 is provided intermediate of the plunger portions 54 and 57 and adapted to reside in the slide means 13, the shoulder 59 being larger than the opening 58 thereby forming a stop to limit outward extension of the plunger means. A coil spring 61 is interposed between the magnet 47 and the annular shoulder 59 and has one end thereof bearing against the magnet 47 and its opposite end bearing against the shoulder 59 to bias the plunger means 53 into an inactive position wherein the outermost end of the reduced portion 54 is fiush with the upper surface of the magnet 47, as illustrated in FIG. 2. The finger piece 57 is slightly smaller in diameter than the opening 24 of the concave bottom wall 23 whereby 4the finger piece 57 is extensible through the opening and accessible for actuation by a users finger when the slide means 13 is in its lowermost position as seen in the drawings.

In order to unseat or separate the base 52 from the magnet 47, the user need only press inwardly, or upwardly as viewed in the drawings, to bias the plunger means 53 and the reduced end 54 against the base 52 to a position outside of the magnetic field of the magnet 47, I

as viewed in FIG. 3.

As previously mentioned, the component parts of the container are preferably of non-ferrous material, in order that only the ferrous base 52 is attracted to the magnet 47. For this purpose, the spring 61 is preferably formed of a tempered brass material, or other non-ferrous material, while .the plunger means 53 may be machined, cast, molded, or otherwise formed, of plastics, or the like.

When the base 52 is released or separated from the magnet 47, the lipstick refill 12 may be removed from the casing 11 by inverting the lipstick container to permit the lipstick refill to slide outwardly of the casing.

After the lipstick refill 12 has been removed, if it is desired to replace it with a new lipstick refill, the lipstck holder 10 is returned to an upright position with its open end 17 facing upwardly, and another lipstick stick like 12 may be dropped into the casing base first.

In accordance with the objects of this invention, the lipstick refill 12 need not be handled by human hands to remove the refill from the container 10 or to replace the refill with another one. For this purpose, as best seen in FIGS. 4 and 5, a storage container 62 comprising a hollow cylindrical body 63, having a closed end 64 and an open end 66, is provided in which a chamber 67 is adapted to receive and store the refill 12.

The chamber 67 is appreciably larger in diameter than the outer diameter 68 of the refill 12, thus forming an annular space between the cosmetic body 65 of the refill 12 and the inner surface of the chamber 67, thereby avoiding contact between the body 65 and the inner wall which would result in an undesired marring of the outer surface of the body. The chamber 67 communicates with a counter bore 69 having an inner diameter substantially equal to the outer diameter of the base 52 of the refill 12, and a depth substantially equal to the length of the base 52. The counter bore 69 and the chamber 67 forms a shoulder 71 on which the edge of the open end of the cup-shaped base 52 rests. As best seen in FIG. 5, the annular shoulder is very narrow, in practice it has been found that a step of .004 inch is sufhcient to limit the inward movement of the lipstick refill 12, thereby preventing contact of the end 72 of the lipstick cosmetic with the inner surface 73 of the end wall 64 of the body 63, and provide ample clearance, or annular space, between the surface of the body 65 and the inner surface of the chamber 67 to prevent contact therewith.

Axial movement of the lipstick refill 12 within the body 63 and accidental dropping of the refill from its container 62 are prevented by a transfer mechanism in ythe form of a movable support 75, Support 75 is in the form of a unitary spring having an annular portion '76 housed in an annular groove 87 in the outside of the body 63, the spring having an axially extending arm portion 77 which extends from portion 76 towards the open end 66 of the container, the spring continuing in the opposite direction with the cam or inclined portion 78 and then extending outwardly as shelf portion 79, transversely to the axis of the container 62. The portion 80 of the wire adjacent the portions 77 to 79 forms a hinge support for such parts which can operate through an aperture or slot 81 in the wall 82 of the counter bore 74 which acts as a socket. The unexed condition of the spring is such that it assumes the position shown in FIG. 4 wherein the cam portion 78 projects in the counter bore 74 and the shelf portion 79 projects under the bottom 51 of base 52 in position to retain base 52 against shoulder 71.

The bore 74 is of a size to receive or telescope with the top of the cosmetic container 10, the upper edge 38 of outer sleeve 36 acting on the detent or cam portion 78 to urge it outwardly through slot 81, to remove the supporting portion 79 from the base 52 of the refill, whereby ythe refill drops into the casing 10 as indicated in FIG. 5, the bore of container 10 and the bore of body 63 providing a passage for transferring refill 12 from either one of the containers 62 and 10 to the other. From this, it will be apparent that if container 62 is empty and refill 12 is in the container 10, the refill can be transferred from container 10 to container 62 by inserting the open end of container 10 into counter bore 74 to move the support 75 out of the way, and then by inverting the containers, the refill will drop from con tainer 10 to container 62.

Until needed for use, refill 12 is held in its container 62 as shown in FIG. 4 by support 75 which is locked in supporting position by the cylindrical flange 83 of removable cap 84, flange 83 overlying the slot 81 and spring portion 77.

While I have herein shown and described my invention in what I have conceived to be the most practical and preferred embodiments, it is recognized that departures may be made therefrom, within the scope of my invention, which is not to be limited to the details disclosed herein but is to be accorded the full scope of the claims so as to embrace any and all equivalent devices.

I claim:

1. A cosmetic stick device comprising a container having mechanism for reciprocating a cosmetic stick, a refill cosmetic stick container, said containers fitting together and forming a passage for a refill stick from one of said containers to the other, said refill container having a shelf for the refill and means for securing said shelf to the rell container for movement into and out of supporting relation with the refill stick, said rst mentioned container comprising means for operating said shelf.

2. A cosmetic stick device comprising a casing having mechanism for reciprocating a cosmetic stick, a refill cosmetic container having means for supporting a refill cosmetic stick to freely move longitudinally therein, said casing having an open end fitting with said container to form an unrestricted passage through which said refill can drop by gravity, said casing comprising means for operating said supporting means to a position out of supporting relation with said refill.

3. A cosmetic stick device comprising a container having an open end and a passage communicating with said open end, a cosmetic stick having a base having a shoulder, the container passage having a cooperating shoulder for limiting upward movement of the cosmetic stick away from said open end of the container, said passage being substantially free from frictional engagement with said cosmetic stick whereby said cosmetic stick will drop by gravity out of said open end when the stick is unsupported, in combination with a support carried by said container and movable either to a position in supporting relation with the outer end of the base of said cosmetic stick, or out of supporting relation therewith, means providing a sleeve insertible in the open end of said container in the path of said support for moving said support out of said supporting relation at certain times, said last mentioned means having a passage larger than said cosmetic stick and into which said cosmetic stick is adapted to drop by gravity when said support is out of said supporting relation.

4. A cosmetic stick device comprising a container having mechanism for reciprocating a cosmetic stick, a refill cosmetic stick container, said containers fitting together and forming a passage through which a refill stick will drop by gravity from one of said containers to the other when the stick is unsupported, said refill container having a support for the refill, said refill container having an open end having a socket in which an open end of said first container slidingly fits, said socket having a side wall having an aperture, said refill container having spring means urging said support through said aperture into the path of the open end of said first mentioned container and into supporting relation with said stick.

5. A cosmetic stick device comprising a casing having mechanism for reciprocating a cosmetic stick having a cup base, a refill cosmetic stick container having a counter bore having a shoulder forming a stop for said cup base for supporting a cosmetic stick in fixed position in said container with the sides and end of the cosmetic stick in spaced relation from the wall of said container, said casing and container fitting together and forming a passage for a cosmetic stick from one of said containers to the other, said refill container having a shelf for the refill and means for securing said shelf to the refill container for movement into and out of supporting relation with the cosmetic stick, said casing comprising means for operating said shelf.

6. A cosmetic stick device comprising a casing having mechanism for reciprocating a cosmetic stick having a cup base, a refill cosmetic container having means for supporting said base in Ifixed position in said container with the sides and end of the cosmetic stick out of contact with the container, said casing having an open end fitting with said container to form an unrestricted passage through which said refill can freely move longitudinally therein and said casing comprising means for operatdrop by gravity, ing said supporting means to a relation with said refill.

7. A cosmetic stick device according to claim 6, said supporting means comprising a unitary wire spring encircling said refill container, one end of said spring terminating in cam and shelf portions, said spring urging said shelf portion into said passage, said spring urging said shelf portion in the path of the open end of said casing.

8. A cosmetic stick device according to claim 7, said refill container having a side wall having a transverse opening through which said shelf and cam spring portions operate.

9. A cosmetic stick device comprising a cylindrical conposition out of supporting tainer having an end wall and an open end, said open end having a (first) bore and inwardly thereof a smaller bore serving as a socket for the base of a cosmetic device, said base having a height substantially the same as the length of said socket and said socket at its inner end having a shoulder forming a stop for said base to limit insertion of said cosmetic device in said container with the stick of said cosmetic device in spaced relation to the side and end walls of said container, said container having a spring, said spring having a portion extending longitudinally of said container towards its open end, said spring terminating in a cam portion and a shelf portion extending through an opening in the wall of said container, said spring urging said cam portion into said first bore with said shelf portion at the outer end of said smaller bore.

l0 A cosmetic stick device according toclaim 9 in combination with a cap fitting on the open end of said container, said cap having a skirt overlying said longitudinally extending spring portion.

ll. A cosmetic stick device according to claim 9 in combination with a cosmetic stick holder comprising a casing having an -outside diameter fitting in said first bore and havng a passage of substantially the same diameter as said smaller bore, said first bore having a shoulder limiting the insertion of said holder into said rst bore, the outer end of said holder serving to act on said cam spring portion and urge said shelf portion away from said smaller bore.

l2. A cylindrical container having an open end and an end wall, a cylindrical cosmetic device having a base and cosmetic stick, said cosmetic device fitting in said container with the cosmetic stick projecting towards said end wall and said base slidably fitting in the open end of said container, said cosmetic device being freely slidable, base foremost, from a position inside of said container outwardly through said open end, said open end of said container having a shoulder, said Ibase at one end thereof having a portion fitting on said shoulder with the cosmetic stick in spaced relation from the end wall of said container, said container having a spring, said spring having a portion extending'in a slot in the wall of said container, said spring portion terminating in cam and shelf portions, said shelf portion being movable into and out of supporting relation with said base, and a cap fitting on said open end -of said container, said cap having a skirt fitting over said slot and acting to hold said shelf portion in position to sandwich said base between said shelf portion and said shoulder.

13. A cosmetic stick device comprising a cylindrical container having an end Wall and an open end, said open end having a (first) `bore :and inwardly thereof a smaller boire serving as a socket for the base of a cosmetic device, said socket at its inner end having a shoulder forming a stop fo-r said Ibase to limit insertion of said cosmetic device in said container, a spring having a portion fastening the spring to said container, said spring also having an arm portion, a cam portion, and a shelf portion, said container having recess means housing all of said spring portions within the periphery of said container when said arm portion is in idle position with said cam porton in said first bore and said shelf portion intercepting said smaller bore, said recess means including a slo-t through the Wall of said container for movement of said cam and shelf portions out of said bores.

14. A cosmetic stick device comprising a container having mechanism for reciprocating a cosmetic stick, a refill cosmetic stick container, said refill container comprising means for supporting the cup base of a cosmetic stick adjacent the open end of said refill container with its cosmetic stick in spaced relation to the wall of said refill container, said containers fitting together and forming a passage for the refill stick from one of said containers to the other, said refill container having a shelf for the refill and means for securing said shelf to the refill container for movement into and out of supporting relation with the refill stick, said rst mentioned container comprising means for operating said shelf. 1,014,061

References Cited in the tile of this patent 686,98 5

UNlTED STATES PATENTS 726,921

1,637,549 Chandler Aug. 2, 1927 773,925 2,753,991 Sherman July 10, 1956 FOREIGN PATENTS France May 2l, 1952 Great Britain Feb. 4, 1953 Great Britain Mar. 23, 1955 Great Britain May 1, 1957 

